A report today announced that Amazon Games will be the publisher for the upcoming, highly anticipated sequel to Tomb Raider. The news comes as a surprise to many gamers, who have been watching Amazon Games slowly expand its reach in the gaming over the past few years.
Crystal Dynamics – the renowned developer behind the trilogy that includes 2013's Tomb Raider, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider , and 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider – will be developing this game.
Earlier this year, Square-Enix, an international publisher based in Japan, sold Crystal Dynamics, the iconic Tomb Raider and all related franchises such as Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain to Swedish holding company Embracer Group. The acquisition included most of its Western studios and their properties under one roof.
See also: Returnal will also be available on PC – Requires 32 GB of RAM
This year, the studio announced that it's hard at work on a new Tomb Raider installment as part of its work on Epic 's Unreal Engine gaming platform. There aren't many details yet, but it's been described as an immersive solo experience that will continue Lara Croft 's saga from the Tomb Raider series . According to Amazon , the project is running on Unreal Engine 5 and is currently in the early stages of production, with plans for a multi-platform release. We don't yet know when we can expect a release date.
It's a bit of a surprise to see Amazon publishing the next Tomb Raider game , given that Embracer has its own game publishers . However, Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos said that Amazon Games has "a unique ability to revolutionize what publishing and development partnerships are" - and that they share the same "vision, ambitions and values" as the Tomb Raider team . To be clear: Amazon is not acquiring Crystal Dynamics or taking ownership of Tomb Raider - rather, it's just exclusively publishing the upcoming title within that franchise.
See also: Forspoken: New action RPG game revealed
Amazon Games has been making headlines over the past couple of years, especially in multiplayer. Whether it's creating its own MMOs like New World or partnering with other studios to publish multiplayer titles, Lost Ark was one such successful project, attracting a large audience that frequents the many Twitch dedicated to multiplayer gaming.
Amazon Games is known for its collaboration with Twitch, but now it has announced its first single-player title – Tomb Raider. While popular streamers often play a variety of single-player games, that’s not enough to dominate the most-viewed channels on Twitch. Currently, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Warzone are some of the top contenders in terms of viewership on the platform. With such an incredible change from previous titles made by Amazon Games, we can only imagine what awaits us in this new exciting story!
Source: arstechnica.com
